Austin-based Bayonne, aka, Roger Sellers, has previously toured with Two Door Cinema Club, Caribou, Neon Indian, Chairlift, Thundercat & Battles and Peter Bjorn and John. Now, in anticipation of the release of his forthcoming debut album and after recently being included on the FIFA 17 soundtrack with previous single ‘Appeals,’ Sellers, has shared a new video for album standout track ‘Living Room.’ Primitives spans a roughly etched landscape of ambient noise and teetering synthesizers darkened with percussive guitars. It’s the debut album of Bayonne, and it’s a phenomenally crafted first statement.
Sellers is a self-proclaimed minimal composer, and while Primitives does possess moments of sparse, lonely sound, it also offers wide depths of impressionistic, textural richness. Primitives streams like one long dragging piece of music, but at the same time segregated into eight connected ideas. Sellers’ vocals and lyrics are often muffled by the music, but when they’re at their most projected they have a Sufjan Stevens-esque quality. In fact, of the record sounds like a bit of an ode to Sufjan, actually. It’s easy to slip into Bayonne imaginary drifting world and get lost inside it.
Citing his own influences, Roger Sellers puts Phil Collins at the top of the list, somewhat randomly. However the way percussion is used and the sounds achieved on the drums here are definitely a tip of the hat not only to Collins’ Genesis. There’s something both humanistic and animalistic about the way percussion is approached on Primitives that goes a long way to establishing cohesion between these pieces of music.
If there’s one detractor from Primitives, it’s a vagueness in style leading to a feeling of disconnectedness between tracks. Despite this the stand out tracks “Appeals” and “Spectrolite” hold their own.
Without a doubt, this is a strong debut album. There’s complex composition without sacrificing hooks. Bayonne is currently playing a handful of European shows, and ‘Primitives’ is due out Nov 4th via City Slang.
Bayonne – Living Room (Official Music Video)
